Brazil is the largest world producer of passion fruit, however, it has been observed a reduction in the productivity in recent years due, mainly, to phytosanitary factors. At Embrapa Cerrados, the transfer of resistance genes from wild to commercial species of passion fruit has been made through interspecific hybridations, followed by a backcrossing molecular marker-assisted program. The objective this work was to verify the recovery of recurrent genome at the plants RC4 and RC5 [(Passiflora edulis x Passiflora setacea) x Passiflora edulis] based on RAPD markers. The study was developed at Embrapa Cerrados Laboratory of Genetics and Molecular Biology. DNA samples of each genetic material (17 RC4 plants, 16 RC5 plants, Passiflora edulis and Passiflora setacea) were amplified to obtain RAPD markers. There were used 12 decamer primers for plants RC4 and 14 decamer primers for plants RC5. The RAPD markers generated were converted into a matrix of binary data. There were a high percentage of polymorphic markers as a result of interspecific base crossing. The smallest genetic similarity was observed between species P. edulis and P. setacea, highlighting the large genetic distance of these commercial and wild varieties, respectively.
backcrossing; molecular markers; genetic similarity; Passiflora edulis and Passiflora setacea
